Murray defeats Japanese dragon Ito

Andy Murray opened his French Open campaign with a win against the world no. 68 Japan’s Tatsuma Ito 6-1 7-5 6-0.

Andy opened play with a straightforward hold of serve and then went on to break the Japanese player in his opening service game as Ito threw a few unforced errors and a double fault in to easy Murray to a 2-0 lead with little effort.

Another easy service game for Andy preceded another unsettled game from Ito who offered up another 2 break points for Murray, who only needed one to go up a double break. Murray furthered his lead in the first set by quickly winning his service game to love for a 5-0 lead.

Ito prevented a bagel by holding onto the sixth game of the match and then the Japanese player decided to stop making errors and took Murray twice to deuce before Murray took the first set in 25 minutes.

The little rhythm that Tatsuma Ito had begun to build at the end of the first set faltered in the opening game of the second set as he dropped serve again to Murray.

Then at 2-1 up in the second Murray played a loose game and his Japanese opponent broke the world no. 4. This gave Ito confidence and his game really opened up in the fifth game of the set where his ‘dragon’ forehand came to the fore and he took the lead for the first time in the match 3-2.

Murray held serve and Ito having found his form did the same, gaining great approval from the nonpartisan crowd. A tough service game followed for Murray, and he had to claw himself back from behind, saving break points to bring things level at 4-4.

The next two games went with serve before Ito threw in a series of faults and offered up 3 break points to Murray which he was unable to convert but was given another chance and took then came out to serve for the second set which he did with ease.

The third set took a similar shape to the first, with Murray breaking Ito in the opening game and then speeding through the set with little resistance from the Japanese player to take the set 6-0.

Wow!.. that was fast, Hazel! Thanks, and good report.Andy looked good to me. A little gut-clutch in 1st set when he lost the (only) game to Ito.2nd set walkabout as per... and Ito lit his raquet in response.Andy lit his in 3rd.. enough to extinguish Ito's.Serve looked ok.....Movement ok.All in all.. a good start.Great to see Kim there... she is stunning.Onwards and upwards..

Although I didn't want Ito to win it, Andy's mental AWOL (no I don't think he was "playing around" for the sake of practice, and neither did the comms - we've seen it all before) in the 2nd set gave the man from Japan a chance to show us what he's capable of, and he duly obliged, showing us why tennis is a rising sport in that country.

Good comfortable work-out for Andy which will hopefully have helped to iron out the post-layoff niggles.

How much better is the ITV coverage, their comms and pundits are listenable!!! No Fed-luv fest, no Andy bashing!!!

I wish they'd do Wimbledon as well!

Courier in particular is great the way he doesn't automatically assume that viewers know everything about tennis and is happy to explain things. I knew nothing at all about the difference between Andy and Rafa's grips, or how that difference affected their game, until today.

Noticed that as well as taking Inverdale from the BBC, ITV have also got Mark Petchey. Jim Courier is a quality broadcaster, as you say he explains things so well and is not pompous about his achievements and knowledge. Lovin' the ITV coverage. Will be a nightmare to have to go over to Castle & Co for Queens and Wimbedon!!

How much better is the ITV coverage, their comms and pundits are listenable!!! No Fed-luv fest, no Andy bashing!!!

I prefer Andrew Castle. He explains the effect that new balls has on the serve, each time they are introduced. He also explains the many various intricacies (when they switch sides, for example) of the tiebreak system, which is important as it is fairly new to tennis (introduced to Wimbledon in its current form in '79)